Harrison sheriff gives road update

March 8, 2013

CADIZ - Sheriff Ronald J. Myers updated Harrison County Commissioners on the vehicle count for the access road to the Harrison Hub construction site during Wednesday's meeting.

"The vehicle count for traffic on Crimm Road (TR-223) in February was 38,345 which is just tracking one way into the facility. That brings the total to roughly 135,000 vehicles," the sheriff said.

"We are currently in contact with ODOT and they are considering doing a traffic study for the county," Myers stated. "This would help us to access the data for all the highway use and possibly allow additional state funds to be released for paving and road repair in the county."

Doug Crabtree of the engineer's office submitted research which provided a sample Road Use and Maintenance Agreement (RUMA) from Median County, "This county is one of 5 counties which charge companies for RUMAs," said Crabtree. "We have checked with 19 counties which are in the Marcellus Shale region and found just these five which are charging permit fees."

The board will consider the information as they debate possible fees for Harrison County.

Joy Taggart presented a list of improvements and remodeling which the County Home has completed including repainting, replacing linoleum floors and adding a bathroom sink.

Some mandatory repairs on the list included draining and cleaning the 15,000 cistern for the sprinkler system, replacing a sewer line, replacing 30 electrical outlets, 4 faucets and building some shelving.

The major cost was replacing the furnace which cost over $24,000 according to Tagggart.

"We were able to accomplish these things through the generosity of the voters who passed out levy," Taggart said. "We would like to thank them all for helping us keep costs low for our residents.

Taggart explained that average costs for keeping a person in a nursing care facility runs around $6,000 per month, "We charge our residents just $1,350 per month."

The home is requesting assistance from the commissioners to purchase a generator capable of running the entire facility during an extended outage.

"We have been lucky so far but it is just a matter of time," Taggart said that the current generator would run the wells for water and allow the furnace to be used. "It does not provide any lighting and any resident requiring oxygen would have to be wheeled to the basement and hooked up by extension cord."

Commission chair Don Bethel agreed that the generator would be a food idea and asked that more research be done into the required size and cost of an appropriate generator for the home.

The home is currently in the process of installing new bathrooms and Taggart mentioned some additional projects and purchases which should be considered.

Resolving an issue in the Health Department the board also appropriated $10,000 into the Health District to facilitate the hiring of a part -time health inspector.